The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-10-27
THE A, B, c, OF AGRICULTURE
NUMBER |.

much more intelligence and skill to
farm successfully now than it did for
merly and for a variety Of reasons
Our wants have increased. The
luxuries of our fathers have become
everyday necessities for comfort. We
feel that we must. live better, dress
better, go more, work fewer hours,
and we require more in the way Of
mental improvement, accomplish
ments, and the like. This is as it
should be. The farmer should have
and should enjoy all that is within the
reach of the merchant or professional
man; he i even entitled to more than
the town resident to make up for the
isolation of life on the farm.
The fact that country people do not
have the advantages Of the town peo-
pie, that farming at the present time
does not hold out such strong induce
ments to young men as other occupa-
tons, not only prevents the townbred
boy from becoming a farmer, but it
also draws a large proportion of the
brightest and smartest boys from the
country to the town, and we have as
the result a much larger number of the
naturally gifted, shrewd men Of the
country engaged in manufactures,
transportation, trading, etc., than we
find farming, and it naturally follows
that the smarter men secure the larger
share of the proceeds of the industries.
Another disadvantage that the
farmer labors under-the outcome of
greater ability possessed by men in
other industries-is the fact that i'm
p1ovement in methods of manufacture,
trade, transportation, and distribution
has been very much more rapid than
in farming. These industries are
growing away from the production of
farm crops.
During the past fifty; years the
power of one man to turn raw products
into manufactured goods and dis
tribute them to consumers, through
the introduction of improved machin-
cry and application of scientific dis
coveries, has increased from five to
one hundred or more times. We
have made no such advance in grow
ing crops. 1t is true the introduction
of large implements, and the binder
and header, has increased the capacity
of one mar ten fold in growing and
harvesting wheat, and haying ma
chinery to nearly as great an extent
in making hay; but we have only in
creased a mans capacity two or three
fold in making corn, while in cotton
growing it is probable that, on the
average, n nan really produces less;
or, at least, no more than he did thirty
years ago.
There is still another factor that is
detrimental to the interests of the
farmer, and hat is the exhaustion of
the virgin fertility Of the soil. Except
in portions of the older settled States,
up to the present time, farming has
been largely of the pioneer order,
which means clearing up the land, and
cropping it in such a way as to produce
a crop with the least labor, regardless
Of the exhaustion and loss of the fer
tility of the soil, compelling us now to
adopt some system of fertilization, that
is necessarily expensive, to make the
land produce as much as it did for
merly.
So much is said and written at the
present time about monopolies and
unjust laws which are expressing the
farmer, that many are led to believe
that the condition of the farmer may
be improved simply by legislation.
While there may be some injustice
done to the farmer by powerful cor
porations and lawmakers, still we
must study the underlying principles
Of agriculture and it's connection with
other industries, and raise it to a par
with those pursuits, before the farmer
can secure a just compensation for his
labor.
1t is the purpose of the writer to
present some thoughts on what may
be called the principles underlying
successful successful agriculture and
he will endeavor to show that farming
may be pursued as successfully as the
other occupations, if the work is con-
Quoted in the proper manner.
F. A. GULLEY.
Agricultural College of Mississippi.